Real CMS proton-proton collision events in which 4 high energy electrons (green lines and red towers) are observed. The event shows characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson but is also consistent with background Standard Model physics processes. (Image from cds.cern.ch)

It is now almost certain the subatomic particle that brings together everything in the universe has been found, CERN scientists announced on Thursday. Latest analysis of data from the Large Hadron Collider proves that the Higgs boson actually exists.

The search for the missing particle dubbed as ‘the holy grail of
physics,’ which has been going on for almost half a century and has
brought the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) into existence,
has finally resulted in some strong experimental evidence.

For the first time since the triumphant announcement of the new
particle discovery in July 2012, the European Organization for
Nuclear Research CERN has declared it is indeed the Higgs boson
that they’ve found, as the analyzed LHC data “strongly
indicates.”

“The preliminary results with the full 2012 data set are
magnificent and to me it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs
boson, though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of
Higgs boson it is,” said physicist Joe Incandela, the
spokesperson for CERN’s Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) team.

The existence of the boson in question and its linked energy
field was predicted by British physicist Peter Higgs as he was
looking for answers of the open questions of particle physics.
Without the Higgs boson, the Standard Model of particle physics
fails to explain all the processes happening in the universe, its
absence would also not be compatible with Einstein’s theory of
general relativity – still a dominant way of explaining
gravity.

The question which has eluded countless physicists for decades,
and the missing link explaining how the universe works at the very
basic level, is what gives mass to matter. In other words, what has
brings all the flying particles together to form stars, planets and
humans ever since the Big Bang.

Many scientists attribute this role to the elusive Higgs boson,
although “exotic” theories exist, which go beyond the Standard
Model.

Now, after petabytes of LHC data have been processed, CERN
scientists are quite confident there is a Higgs boson – and that it
most likely fits into the mainstream particle physics principles,
as David Charlton of the LHC’s ATLAS team indicated during the
Thursday CERN conference.

Although it might take years for the discovery to be fully
confirmed and fleshed out, one cannot expect anything more
sensational from the LHC team in the coming two years, as the
27-kilometer collider has been shut down for maintenance until the
early 2015.